| Dagestan minister
killed by magnetic mine TEXT: Ksenia Solyanskaya NTV image Magomedsalikh Gusayev, the minister for ethnic policy, information and public relations in Russia's internal North-Caucasian republic of Dagestan, was killed on Wednesday morning in the centre of Makhachkala. Two unidentified men placed a magnetic mine on the top of his chauffer-driven Volga seconds after the minister got into the car. According to the Dagestani Interior Ministry report, at around 0830 on Wednesday, while Gusayev was getting into his Volga car and was about to leave the courtyard of his home situated at the intersection of Akushinskogo and Vorovskogo Streets, two unknown men ran up to the car, placed an explosive device, presumably a magnetic mine, on top, and fled. A powerful blast rocked the courtyard several seconds later. Gusyaev was killed on the spot, while his driver, who miraculously avoided serious injury, was transported for questioning to the Kirov district police station of Makhachkala. This is the second murder perpetrated with the use of a magnetic bomb installed on a victim's car registered in Russia. On October 20, 1999 St. Petersburg lawmaker and former deputy chairman of the city's Legislative Assembly Viktor Novosyolov was killed in exactly the same way. A magnetic mine with 200 grams of explosives was placed on the top of his car above the backseat. Then, Novosyolov's bodyguard managed to detain one of the assailants. According to one of the leads being examined by Dagestani police, radical Islamists with links to the Chechen rebels could have perpetrated the attack on Gusayev. The minister is an old foe: after Shamil Basayev's assault on Dagestan in 1999, Gusayev launched a successful information campaign against the extremists. In response, the so-called Shura (council) of the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan, headed by Shamil Basayev, pronounced a death verdict on Gusayev. If Islamists did in fact murder the minister, the attack may be timed to coincide with the anniversary of Basayev's incursion in Dagestan. On August 27, 1999 federal troops were preparing for an attack on the Wahabbi-dominated villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi. This is not the first attack on Magomedsalikh Gasayev. On June 8, 2001 unknown gunmen attempted to carry out the death sentence on Gusayev. That attack occurred literally a few steps from the place where the minister was killed on Wednesday. On that occasion Gusayev, too, was heading to work, and as he came out of his house, he nearly stepped on the bomb. With wounds to his legs, he was rushed to the hospital by his driver, the only witness of the incident. The case, however, was never solved, even though investigators managed to create a composite drawing of the assailant. Gusayev's murder is the second high-profile murder perpetrated in Makhachkala in the past two weeks. On August 12 the leader of the Lak opposition and former State Duma deputy Nadirshakh Khachilayev was murdered in the Dagestani capital. The trail of that crime, Dagestani police say, also leads to Chechnya. 27 August 15:39 Gazeta ru |